Quirrell at last pierced the final defense. It was clever, but nothing the Dark Lord couldn't help him puzzle out, telling him to take a sip of each of the potions and swallow the bezoar he had urged Quirrell to carry about had been genuis, more over, the Dark Lord had explained anything the bezoar missed the stone could easily cure.

Seeing the crowded stone room, wands pointed at seemingly everyone including him by an annoyed looking Albus Dumbledore, he considered running. The threat of dire consequences if he failed, and the fact his very life depended on the stone made him stay. His hesitation cost him however, and the old man had him tied up and falling to the floor in chains in an instant, even as a conflicted looking Prince considered attacking the old man, but decided it wasn't worth getting imprisoned.

From within his turban Voldemort was pleased with his servant's seeming loyalty, little good that did him now. Still, he rather doubted Severus would succeeded where he had failed, and was smart enough to try. Smart, loyal, rich and famous placed impeccably in his enemy's camp as a spy. What a useful servant he had become in his absence, the immortal thought as fondly as he ever could about a person.

Distracted though his other half was, Quirrell was fully in the moment and aware of how screwed he was.

What in the world was Dumbledore doing here when he'd sent that false message to the ministry? Why and how did Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom get into this inner sanctum of a dungeon full of traps? Severus Prince looking as if he'd swallowed one of Dumbledore's lemon drops, as well as some Weasley, he couldn't tell them apart for the life of him.

Quirrell muttered "Well, this is awkward." from his place on the floor.

"Silence fool!" Voldemort yelled, even as one of the interchangeable seeming Weasley twins passed the fire entering the room.

"Darn-it, this isn't the way to the bathroom! I guess I'm lost... and you're not buying this are you?" George sighed, "Detention then?" Professor Dumbledore was spared from answering by the sounds of clinking containers and the sudden appearance of another redhead.

"Ow ow" A yelping gangly boy came through the fire looking a little crispy himself, very little of the potion having been remaining indeed.

Finally having patted out the last fire, he looked up and around to the tense situation and frowned at his wayward brother.

"It wasn't enough that you had to put your life in danger for some stupid rock, but you chose to do it the night they decided three-headed monster dogs and strangling plants weren't enough and decided to guard it or steal it themselves? Are you out of your mind!?" Fred yelled.

"Calm down Fred- this isn't what it looks like at all, this is just a tea party, honest. " See if he tried to get a really wicked present for his ever so slightly more rule abiding Twin Brother's birthday again.

An explosion had everyone ducking their heads, the wall to the right of the fire was blown through, a stream of red robed wizards came through pointing wands.

"Aurors, everyone drop the wands!"

"Oh for Merlin's saggy testes, I give up, but you haven't seen the last of me!" A black smoke seemed to slowly pour out of Quirrel's turban, nose, ears and mouth, coalescing into a dark manlike shape with red eyes. The collapse of Quirrel's body into blood red dust stalled them just long enough for the wraith to fly through one of children and steal enough magic to retreat and regroup.

Had he waited a few moments more, he would have witnessed the board of governs led by Lucius Malfoy staring in shock at the scene through the hole of the wall, before finally they got their wits about them and entered.

Scruffy trudged alongside a cheerful Luna after yet another foray into the forbidding forbidden forest. They hadn't managed to find anything new, but they did manage to see a Unicorn. That was something at least.

Scruffy, being a boy perhaps, didn't quite see what the big deal was, it was just a horny horse to him.

Luna on the other hand had watched it with barely repressed excitement, and to his surprise it had trotted up to the both of them, letting Luna coo all over it.

Finally reaching Hogwarts Grounds, they heard some commotion going on in Hagrid's hut.

Frowning, while Scruffy didn't like the man- he didn't want him dead quite, he motioned Luna to be silent. Miming zipping her lips, locking them and throwing over the key to Scruffy's fond exasperation, he quickly threw over the invisibility cloak over the both of them.

They were just in time to overhear something that shocked Scruffy to his core.

"A Cerberus? Oh, can we see it?" Luna asked forgetting the need for silence.

Thankfully she wasn't ever a loud person, but none-the-less Scruffy steered them away from the hut, away from the unlikely trio of Rum, Hermione and Neville.

More important to that, he thought, was just what Nicolas Flamel had hiding at Hogwarts, and sighed. If it were up to him he'd keep wondering, but Luna was a reporter. She'd never let go of a juicy tidbit like that.

Discovering just who Nicolas Flamel was proved to be difficult. Worse yet, as Luna reminded him- it didn't have to be a person as it could potentially be an object or a pet with an odd name, not an impossibility in the Wizarding World.

Worse still, with the headmaster seemingly knowing everything that went down in the castle, he didn't dare write home to the Sub Rosa asking.

"I pity anyone that stays at Hogwarts for Christmas, really-"

Scruffy couldn't quite agree, not with the library and portraits at his disposal, but he supposed he did rather miss his family.

Scruffy had been curious about the beautiful silver mirror for what felt like ages. He remembered distantly being drawn to it when he was younger- and vaguely remembered never following through on it, having more immediate concerns like worrying about if the Sub Rosa decided he didn't fit in, that he was just a stupid kid after all if he didn't earn enough stars.

Still, upon finally learning what it was, he was rather stunned. It was a magic beyond anything he had thought possible.

"What?" he finally asked.

"I said -" Rosie started.

"I heard what you said, I just don't understand how you could place such a valuable mirror in a place any of the Sub Rosa can get to?" Scruffy loved them but even he knew they weren't all trustworthy- no organization has a completely devote following, especially not one with so many sticky fingered sentients.

"They can't though get to it though, that's the thing. You ever wondered why we get so few visitors compared to other way points?" At Scruffy's annoyed nod, Rosie went on "Well, this is why- only the most trusted can get to this house through The Way." His eyes widened at that, he'd been allowed to go through the Sub Rosa's transportation- the Way Points that connected all of the Sub Rosa's properties by himself since the first month! They had trusted him so long despite being a kid?

He hadn't realized he'd spoken until Rosie's answer "Yes and no... There's a sort of modified age-line around it, only if you thought your life was in genuine danger could you go through it and access the mirror- or if someone was with you anyway."

"Alright then... Well, then what about Luna and Xeno?" Scruffy asked, not wanting to keep secrets from his best friend.

Rosie winced, "Scruffy, they're, well, they're reporters.."

"Oh. Right. But still, I think this might be worth an oath-"

"I'll think about it and discuss it with the others, no promises though- oaths aren't fool proof, not with truth potions and that mind reading thing." Rosie said, not wanting to reveal her knowledge of legitmancy, much less her capability with it or that she used it on him to figure out he was trustworthy.

Scruffy slumped at them. "Can we at least get them to learning occulmancy then?"

"Sure, no harm in that, I know Xeno has some interesting spells..."

Scruffy shook his head, he loved the Sub Rosa, he really did, but they could be awfully mercenary.

"In the mean time, you can teach Luna, I'm sure she has something to offer in trade." Rosie winked at him, and Scruffy felt himself blushing.

He wasn't quite there yet, and even if he were, he didn't think he'd want to trade magic for it, money either for that matter.

"Oh, and if you see any good prospects for membership or anything you think we should have..."

"I'll tell you when I have some time to think about it... Maybe this weird girl- Hermione Granger- she's obsessed with learning every spell there is it seems, would fit right in." He grumbled, not entirely pleased with the idea, she was bloody annoying a lot of the time. Still, he supposed a girl that was brave enough to hunt down a troll was pretty cool even if she got in over her head.

"I'll tell you more during the Summer, I'm pretty sure Dumbledore reads our mail or has someone do it, how else could he keep the fact there's a Cerberus at Hogwarts secret?" Scruffy finished, hoping to surprise Rosie for once.

"Probably for Care Of Magical Creatures classes" Rosie said, shrugging it off to his disappointment.

"Oh... I hadn't thought of that..." Scruffy said, maybe he shouldn't bother her with Flamel then, he had a lot to think about, he wouldn't earn enough money with magic tricks he didn't think, not for the amounts the Sub Rosa needed.

"No reason you should have- you don't pick electives till third year- though I suppose you've already started some?" She asked smirking.

Blushing a bit he nodded "Yeah, I've been going to Runes and Arithmancy classes occasionally- though I think I'm going to stop with the Arithmancy, I don't have much a head for math beyond the basics. Maybe I'll check out Care."

"I'm so proud of you just for getting the chance- you pick and study what you want." Rosie said, making him blush again even as warmth flooded him. Then she ruffled his hair ruining the moment, he thought. Flinching away as he hated getting his hair ruffled, soon led to a playful chase.

Overall, Scruffy was pleased with finally being told what the mirror was for. This... He didn't know if it was needed, but it made sense. The Muggles didn't care what they were doing to the planet, the pollution, the overpopulation. The Magicals weren't much better- they probably could have helped- but even if the Sub Rosa could have possibly stemmed the tide against Earth's demise, the ICW would never allow such a breach of the Statute of Secrecy, not knowing or caring that it was another reason the Sub Rosa in the know focused so much on the mirror... The Statute wouldn't last forever, not with the muggles getting more and more technologically advanced. Already there were Polaroid cameras and video cameras- rapidly becoming more popular.

As he thought and ran, he decided the Mirror was needed, but all this raised a very important question in Scruffy's mind.

"Time out- time out I said-" Rosie finally stopped, "What is it Scruffy?"

"Why are you in charge of the mirror, shouldn't the leaders of the Sub Rosa be in charge?"

Rosie smirked, and Scruffy felt a bit stunned as he realized what Rosie verbalized, giving her a chance to get in a final hair ruffle.

"We are the leaders."

"Are you sure?" Scruffy asked, amazed.

Luna nodded, "Yes, Daddy had a book about it, here..."

"Merlin's beard... Hey Luna.."

"Yes Scruffy?"

He grimaced, but every good magician needs an assistant. "How would you like to help me with a magic trick?"

"Oh goodie! I'd love to, I've been practicing with some balls, it's really hard, my balls get really sweaty in my hands-"

Feeling rather green, Scruffy interrupted "I'm going to assume that you meant you've been practicing the cups and balls trick- moving on! I really want that stone..." He didn't outright say it- it's not a crime to say you wanted something was it?

He needn't have worried "Yay, my first burglary! I'll make a much better Fox than Granger, you'll see, Hound!"

Scruffy felt confused but pleased, knowing Luna had his back made this possible.

"Okay, here's the plan..."

"First, the Weasley twins are the most important... They seemingly can find anyone- they keep popping up on me- even when I'm in secret passages, they're nice enough, so I really feel bad about it, but we need to know how they're doing it to stop them- we can't get caught by them blabbing our whereabouts..."

Running into the Weasley twins wasn't hard- it was harder not to.

Finding out that there were some passages that were immune was the key, and not long after that they saw them consulting a piece of parchment.

It wasn't hard, to bump into one of them and snatch the map right out of one of their pockets. He felt bad about it, and knew this kind of thing was a slipper slope, but considering just what the stakes were, he squashed his guilt.

Once alone, Scruffy repeated what the Twins were given to saying when they thought they were alone, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good", his wand on the parchment that revealed itself to be a map, a map showing not only some passages he hadn't uncovered but the names of every person in the castle, making him smirk.

"We should stalk Hagrid as much as we can, the man leaks information worse than that Razzle Wazzly kid's cauldron. If you can manage it you could even befriend the man- you both are batty for creatures- er, that is you both love animals..."

"Dragons?" Scruffy asked, to Luna's nods.

"Well, damn." Scruffy muttered.

"We should probably recruit help, maybe Granger, she's smart, get her to tell us anything weird going on, maybe that'll give us some clues- maybe tell her someone's after the stone- she'll be so curious she'll be in-"

"Granger says that Neville says that Sprout says that the Devil's Snare we used was young- very young- but asking around I found that the second years and up had to manage a huge mass of the stuff- also she says there's an age line- but it's weird- she said her detection spells showed that it was conditional- as long as you wanted to protect what it contained, you could go through it"

"We already know the teachers involved- and while we can't ask them straight out... we can get them something to protect and see just how they protect it- it might be similar enough to help us."

"Hi Professor, hope you had a good Christmas?"

"It was satisfactory." Professor Prince said shortly.

"Good, er, here, I ...I got you something. I hope you like it sir." Scruffy handed over a gift the Professor regarded with barely concealed worry. Just what had Scruffy done to the man?

Still, after a few detection spells he slowly opened it upon realizing Scruffy wasn't going away.

"Is this!?" Prince opened the container full of nether quartz, one of the rarest and most valuable ingridents.

Scruffy grinned, "Hope you like it Professor." Still stunned the Professor nodded.

Scruffy left, and Luna observed under the invisibility cloak as the Professor shut his office door, before going to the chessboard. Putting the black bishop and white queen together in the center of the board, he moved on to the bookshelf, removing an empty jar and placing it against a wall, the wall swinging open, revealing his private potion's storage, the door left ajar.

"So, something involving chess, or maybe puzzles and puns?" Scruffy mused feeling a headache coming on.

"Once all that is done, after figuring out how to get around the wards and traps, we create a distraction... Or rather, we have someone else create a distraction..."

Scruffy felt slightly bad about the map, but he rather thought gifting the Weasley twin's with the book he had, he considered himself even considering the headaches it was sure to cause.

"The World's Greatest Pranks" wasn't an instruction manual, but did detail some of the biggest pranks ever pulled, such as the time pranksters put a giant fake Iceberg in the Sydney Harbour, H.G. Well's "War Of The World's" radio broadcast that lead to more than a bit of panic that aliens were attacking, and a muggle British newspaper convincing many that spaghetti grows on trees, along with a note saying "Think bigger, sorry about the map." written with a dictation-quill.

"The distraction is going to be unexpected- even to us, so we've got to be prepared to go at a moment's notice- no matter how interesting it is- but I'm betting it's going to come sometime during the lead-up to exams- everyone's stressed then and due some relief."

Everyone was surprised, Scruffy and Luna were no exception as the flying disc hovered menacingly over the Forbidden Forest.

As much as he'd like to watch things unfold, even as everyone rushed towards the windows, the Purebloods and wizard-raised half-bloods getting told just what flying and saucers and aliens meant- the panic and awe increasing- Luna was soon doing her part- making sure all the protectors and potential thieves of the stone were kept too occupied to make use of the distraction or to stop those that were- namely him.

"Someone get Professor Quirrell, he's the defense teacher- and Professor Prince- I hear he's really good with a wand!" Luna shouted- which had everyone paying attention- when the quiet one's shout, the smart one's listen. A couple of eager to get away students did just that- even as Luna snuck away to look at the map, she'd have to run interference if any should deviate to the third floor.

Getting past the defenses was easier than he'd thought.

Changing his mind was easy with occlumency- and he did want to protect the stone... from everyone not a part of the Sub Rosa.

Music soothed the savage beast.

The Devil's snare was bypassed entirely by one of Hogwarts substandard brooms

The chess board was easy enough to fly over as it turned out he didn't have to move the pieces about to unlock the next door

The troll wasn't quite a dragon but easily knocked out by depriving it of air with a modified bubble-headed charm all the same.

The logic puzzle wasn't too hard- he'd done harder ones, having sent home for a few books on them, hating having to dip further into his nest egg of money.

He frowned as he saw the mirror, and within it he was once more in a bank vault surrounded by his full family, this time turning masses of lead into gold.

He tore his gaze off the shockingly ingenious trap once more. "Now how am I going to get the stone out of there? Ah, I can figure it out later." Carrying a golden mirror throughout Hogwarts while trying not to be seen would be logic defying- thankfully he didn't' need to.

"Tinky!"

"Master called?"

It had been heartbreaking, to spend so much money to buy an elf, but it was rather needed, he thought. Despite that, Tinky had been invaluable, more so now.

"Take this mirror to my room at headquarters, please."

"Last but not least... well, it's really silly, but a trick without an audience isn't a very good one, is it? They really shouldn't have put such dangerous things at a school even if it benefits us."

Albus Dumbledore rubbed his forehead, probation after that headache was the least of his worries. In fact, as much of a headache this whole thing was, he was rather pleased, having proven the existence of Lord Voldemort not only to himself, but to several aurors, along with the board of governors- a mixed blessing at best considering Lucius Malfoy was among them- and several students and staff. It was enough to make even Fudge take notice- with so many witnesses not even he could bury his head in the sand and do nothing. He just wished he knew who had arranged all this- not a believer in coincidence. Still, he rather regretted how much extra work it caused, forcing him to repeat days several extra times to help draft legislation to fortify magical locations, increase the numbers of Aurors and Hit-Wizards. Considering the panic the flying saucer had caused, it was proving easier to push through than he had suspected. It was nothing compared to trying to puzzle out just who had stolen the mirror of Erised, and who had led all the people to the third floor all at once.

Prince sighed, it had seemed like such a good idea, stealing the stone to protect it- surely he could put it in a secret and warded location... More, he wasn't getting younger... He was beginning to have his suspicions where the stone ended up, and they spelled nothing good. Destroyed his arse.

Fred and George Weasley were pretty happy. Sure, they'd lost the map and George hadn't managed to get him an awesome birthday gift, but nothing can compare to creating a prank big enough to end up in the newspapers and get uncaught. Getting away from the chaos on the third floor was just pudding really.

Hermione Granger was ruffled, but pleased the stone wasn't in Voldemort's hands.

Ron was hungry. This wasn't unusual, but it wasn't food he was hungry for this time. No, he was hungry for power, as he dreamed in the hospital wing. He dreamed of an army of giant chess pieces under his control, he would become unstoppable!

Madam Pomfrey was annoyed. Ron had managed to shrug off the head wound and limp his way to the final room,aggravating his injury more than a bit.

Neville was happy, not only was the real stone safe, but one whispered plea saw his parents getting some of the last doses of the Elixir of Life remaining, not only did they get back their lost years, they were recovering.

Alice and Frank Longbottom were furious, not only with Augustus Longbottom and Algie Longbottom's horrid tactics of scaring out magic from Neville that was child abuse, but that their son had been in such danger.

Luna was just happy she'd helped a friend.

Smirking, Scruffy placed the mirror next to the other in the Surrey Sub Rosa home. It seemed rather fitting. He was sure between them all, they could figure out how to get the stone out.

Surprisingly it was Rosie who managed to get it out, only to find out that it was a fake. Not entirely useless however, as it made an excellent paper weight.

Sighing, Scruffy said "Mischief Managed". Sure it hadn't worked out perfectly, but he was sure someone would pay good money for a mirror that showed your deepest desire, and the Marauder's Map was a nice consolation prize, he thought, swallowing down his guilt.